FarmVille Holiday Countdown: Everything you need to know

Now that it's officially 12 days until Christmas, we've seen an appropriate feature launch in FarmVille: a Holiday Countdown that will offer 12 days of prizes. To be fair, this isn't the first time we've seen a countdown like this one, offering a new item everyday, but this is the first countdown we've seen in quite some time.

If this is your first in-game countdown, here's a refresher on the rules. From now until Christmas, you'll be able to earn one themed item everyday with the help of friends. You'll need to check out the game's countdown window and ask your friends to send you a collectible(s) via a general news item posted on your wall. When that's done, you'll receive the daily prize.

To start, you'll be able to ask your friends for a collectible allowing you to win the Day 1 prize: a Holiday Lamp Post. You can ask for a collectible once every three hours, and once you actually receive these prizes, you'll be able to place them on any of your farms as they go into your Gift Box. You can also skip waiting (say, you know you'll be out of town and unable to play the game as it gets closer to Christmas) by paying Farm Cash to instantly complete the event.

No matter the case, once the 12 days are up, if you've collected all of the items leading up to that moment, you'll receive a special bonus prize. We'll work on bringing you a complete lineup of the 11 other items you can win in this event, along with the grand prize, so keep checking back with us!